Terms of Reference for Expenditure Verifications

Terms of Reference for Expenditure Verifications

The terms of reference (ToR) for expenditure verifications (together with elements from ToR for systems audits)eplace those for:

Financial audits

Financial and system audits

Expenditure verifications of programme estimates.

Purpose

The new ToR shift the focus from the concept of "audit" to that of "expenditure verification".

No opinion is required but more factual elements are requested.

The text is simplified (25 pages) and the focus is set on the eligibility of the expenditure reported.

The Terms of Reference

Expenditure Verifiers will be requested to sample transactions in financial reports on the basis of risk analyses, perform agreed-upon procedures and report on the eligibility of tested items.

The new reports will document the link between the identified risks and the selected sample (size and structure), which transactions were tested, for which of the tested transactions there were findings and for which there were not. This information, available in electronic format, will simplify the reconciliation between reported amounts and the amounts recorded in accounting systems.

Expenditure verifications must be carried out in accordance with the following models: